Don't rest on your laurels when gathering and sharing research
According to the almanac, we were in for an early winter, therefore Mum, Dad and Gramp had been working long hours throughout October to get all the fall jobs completed.Finally, the wood was under cover, the turnips were in the barn, the garden had been tidied - the potato tops meeting a fiery death to prevent the spread of disease next year, the ploughing and harrowing were completed, sawdust was banked against the house, the storm windows were cleaned and positioned in place, the barn roofs had been checked for loose shingles and the young cattle were no longer running free.
Having spent the morning sawing and then splitting old rails from a cedar fence for kindling wood, Dad was tired when he came in for lunch. Immediately after eating, he stretched out on the kitchen couch for a nap. Pal barked, announcing a car in the yard. The kitchen door opened and in walked Gramp.
He took one look at Dad, and muttered that "resting on his laurels" was no way to get ahead of the work that still needed to be finished before the cold winds of winter arrived.
That statement sure confused me as I had never heard the couch referred to as a laurel. I have since figured out the meaning.
Today many folk who are working to make family research easier are not resting on their laurels. One of them is Todd Gilbert. He officially launched New Brunswick Genealogy Links (http://new-brunswick.net/nbgenlinks/index.htm), a free online directory dedicated to New Brunswick genealogy, on Jan. 20, 1999.
Since its humble start, offering 200 links, it has grown into the most comprehensive genealogy portal for New Brunswick. It is a gateway to online genealogy for New Brunswick, the Maritimes and beyond. It provides access to thousands of links for more than two million online New Brunswick records, Maritime genealogy resources, Maritime family trees and millions of global records.
Another person making inroads in the field is Lindsay Patten. In 2002 he set up a project to transcribe the 1901 census. His website http://automatedgenealogy.com now has an index to every name enumerated in the 1901 and 1911 censuses of Canada with the personal data transcribed, links to images of the original census pages, and links to other records for individuals including census records from other years, birth, marriage, death, and other details. There is also an index on the website to the 1851 census for New Brunswick.
The website of http://www.familysearch.org has been busy adding information, including the 1871 and 1891 census records of New Brunswick.
The Provincial Archives of New Brunswick at http://archives.gnb.ca/Archives has 1,770,730 database records online with the Index to Late Registration of Births - 1914 (3,487) being the latest addition.
Sam Behling's website at http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~sam/disease.html provides an insight into colonial occupations, diseases and cures.
Cleadie B. Barnett has placed the Schedule of Persons receiving funds under the Acts for the Relief of the Old Soldiers of the Revolutionary War and their Widows, specifying their ages, the counties in which they respectively reside, and the year in which relief was first granted at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cannb/NB_LoyalistPensions.html. More information and scanned images are available on the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick website at http://archives.gnb.ca/APPS/GovRecs/OldSoldiers/?culture=en-CA.
At http://distantcousin.com/Directories/Canada/NewBrunswick/StJohn/1923/ one can find a scanned copy of the 1923 City Directory of Saint John, New Brunswick. It has been indexed for a quick search.
The collaborative power of the Internet, the generosity of the many folk who willingly share their research and the institutions who compile the data, provide a four-lane highway to genealogical information even though you don't venture any farther than your chair in front of the computer.
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Query 1685
Bogret - McGuire: Charles Bogret, born Granville, Nova Scotia and Eliza McGuire born in Carleton (Saint John) were married in Saint John circa 1836. They had several children - the first four - Charles Abner 1838, Enoch W. 1841, Eliza or Ada 1844 and John Sinclair 1846 - appear to have been born in Carleton (Saint John), the others were born in Maine.
Email Jbochad@aol.comQuery 1686
Dean: John Dean and wife Rebecca had children: Robert, Benjamin, John, Thomas, Elizabeth and William born between 1856-1863 in New Brunswick, according to the U.S. census of 1870. Births were probably in the Saint John area as a newspaper article in the Taunton Gazette, Taunton, Mass., indicates the parents visited "relatives" there in 1910.
Email gam27@cox.netQuery 1687
McFarlane - Graham: John Graham married Mary Anne McFarlane circa 1860 in New Brunswick. She was the daughter of Robert McFarlane and Catherine McGuire who married on Aug. 10, 1833, at St. Andrews, N.B. Robert was the son of United Empire Loyalist, 74th Regiment, Walter McFarlane. Who were the parents of John Graham? Was he born, in Glasgow, Scotland, June 9,1830?
Email Maureen at mckenna_maureen@hotmail.comQuery 1688
Vienneau - McLaughlan: I am looking for information on Charles Vienneau who was born in Tracadie, New Brunswick, circa 1857 and settled in Prince Edward Island. His parents were Charles Vienneau and Elizabeth McLaughlan.
Peters Family, P.O. Box 1662, Charlottetown, P.E.I., C1A 7N4.
Email Petersfamily2@hotmail.comQuery 1689
White: I am trying to trace the ancestors of Ethel White believed to be the daughter of Ellwood and Hattie White. I found a reference to an Ellwood in the 1881 census for St. Mary's, York County, New Brunswick, when he was 10. Is this the family I seek?
Email D. Owen at daowen@roadrunner.comQuery 1690
Smith: Albert C. Smith, was a successful businessman - his place of business being on the west side of the harbour in Saint John and known as the wholesale commission firm of A.C. Smith & Co. He was also a local and provincial politician in Saint John, born at Blissville, Sunbury County, in March 1845, married Sarah E. Boone of Fredericton. I am trying to determine if he was also known as A. Chip Smith?
Contact John in Ottawa at john_j_noble@rogers.comQuery 1691
Norris: Samuel Norris born Armaugh, Ireland, died in the Alms House, Simonds Parish, in 1894 at age 71. It also states that he was a pauper, boot and shoemaker by profession and that he was a widower. He is recorded in the 1861, 1871 and 1881 census in England. Confusing information as his widow married in England in 1899. Can anyone provide information on Samuel Norris or his relatives while he was in New Brunswick?
Email Christine at christine.shelmerdine@ntlworld.comQuery 1692
Best - Youmans - Peacock: John Wesley Best, was born Aug. 8, 1863, and died Sept. 19, 1935. His first wife was Margaret E Youmans. They were married 1886, Baptist Parsonage, Sussex, Kings Co., N.B., by Rev. Sydney Welton. John gave his residence as St. Martins and Margaret was of Hampton. John's second marriage was in 1889 to Mary Isabel Peacock. John is buried in Hampton with his first wife. Can anyone provide the birth and death dates of Margaret Youmans Best?
<>Ruby Cusack can be reached at rmcusack@nbnet.nb.ca. Her column appears on the third Saturday of the month. Past columns are archived at www.rubycusack.com.
Email Donna at dbordage@nbnet.nb.ca
Ruby M. Cusack is a genealogy buff living in New Brunswick, Canada. Send your New Brunswick genealogical queries to her at: rmcusack@nbnet.nb.ca. Please put "Query" followed by the surnames in your query as the subject. For more information on submitting queries, visit http://www.rubycusack.com/Query-Instructions.html
Ruby contributes a "Family History" column to the Telegraph-Journal on the third Saturday of the month.
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